Mar 29, 2021
J.R.R. Tolkien is often perceived as a reactionary who
completely rejected the trendy world, and whose literary influences
started and ended with the Center Ages. Holly Ordway’s new
ebook, Tolkien’s Fashionable Studying: Center-earth Past the
Center Ages, debunks that view of Tolkien’s life and
work.
Ordway begins with a useful critique of the sources of this
false impression, particularly the official biography written by
Humphrey Carpenter, who admitted his personal bias and need to painting
Tolkien as an uptight fuddy-duddy.
She then proceeds to look at the works of contemporary literature we
know Tolkien learn, gleaning insights about how he could have been
influenced both by acceptance or rejection of what he present in
these works. On this interview we concentrate on Tolkien’s studying of the
father of contemporary fantasy, William Morris, the journey author H.
Rider Haggard, the now-unknown spiritual romance John
Inglesant, and even literary modernists like James Joyce and
Roy Campbell, and realists like Sinclair Lewis.
Watch this dialog on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0_J46A7QhhQ
Hyperlinks
Tolkien’s Fashionable Studying https://retailer.wordonfire.org/merchandise/tmr
Daphne Castell interview with Tolkien https://fantasticmetropolis.com/i/tolkien
Diana Glyer’s books on the Inklings:
The Firm They Maintain
https://www.amazon.com/Firm-They-Maintain-Tolkien-Group/dp/0873389913
Bandersnatch
https://www.amazon.com/Bandersnatch-Tolkien-Artistic-Collaboration-Inklings/dp/1606352768
Among the many books loved by Tolkien talked about on this
episode:
William Morris, The Home of the Wolfings and The
Roots of the Mountains
H. Rider Haggard, She
Joseph Henry Shorthouse, John Inglesant
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Andrew Lang’s fairy story collections
Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit books
E.A. Wyke-Smith, The Marvellous Land of Snergs
John Buchan, The Thirty-9 Steps and the opposite
Richard Hannay books
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